Building autonomous networks

I28

The state is using...these new innovations and technology to encroach upon us and I believe the potential of technology to undermine that and to pose real threats to state and capital are quite acute and I'm interested in building anti-surveillance and anonymity structures online. Housing the technology so that it's not dependent on the structures [that seek to]...capitalize...on those communications technologies....How can we build networks and systems that are completely autonomous that don't rely on those things? But...I'm also constantly questioning these sorts of pursuits...in relation to...climate chaos and the end of energy and so [also] thinking about how technology has a horizon.

Radical community, radical memory

I6

[In the alter-globalization movement] lots of people were thinking about how things could be done very differently and a lot of people were trying to create groups and activist institutions that were not based on the idea of building a new structure of society and the imagination and going out and trying to propagandize it to the world, but actually trying to build that future in the present. So there was this real focus on consensus-based decision making, a big focus on being the change – that was a big phrase, still is I suppose – a big focus on creating...radical communities within the structures that exist today. But also I think it was a bit of a surprise, everyone was very surprised when all of these groups came together and you saw these labour groups marching beside environmental groups….Everyone, for reasons that were completely ahistorical, is really surprised by the emergence of things like the black bloc or...the Ya Bastas from Southern Europe. There was...this moment where everyone was like, 'oh! Where did all of this come from?'

Winning over the long haul

I14

What does winning look like? At some point it's a definitive break from capitalism. I don't know...how long that process is. After that break it's not [over], socialism, or anarchism, or whatever we want to call this new utopia we're creating is going to take a really, really long time to develop. Humans need to become entirely re-socialized, we need to start looking at things in very different ways. That's a really long process.

Solidarity against the prison-industrial complex

I12

Definitely supporting people who have had their freedoms taken away by the prison system and by the state...is one of my political priorities and I do that through doing fundraisers, letter writing... staying updated is another important priority. I try and check websites that have updates of global resistance movements regularly.

Beginning with the basics

I11

I like Food not Bombs because I think that having food and...sharing food is... one of the most...basic things. If we can do that then we can do everything else...or we can work towards doing everything else for ourselves too.

Being a radical

I18

When I say that I'm a radical it means that I'm an extreme leftist, it means that I'm ideological, it means that I have an ideology of what I consider to be the way the world works, how it works for the worst and how it could work for the better and I have principles...that are rooted in me….I am a radical in that I would prefer there to be a destruction of capitalism....I don't...see reform as being an option….I really mean the destruction of current systems [to be replaced with] better systems...

Prefiguring alternatives, resisting the status quo

I3

We need to organize outside of the current mainstream political structures and create, pre-emptively, alternative ways of organizing and living and generating living, breathing examples of other ways of living. One strategy can't really exist without the other. I think if we organize, if we do our own thing, and yet we completely ignore the mainstream political system and let it turn to fascism then whatever alternative pockets exist might get screwed in the long run and, at the same time, if we just depend on asking [for] reforms of the political system then all we're going to get are scraps all the time and never have any kind of real change before it's too late.

Everyday solidarity

I1

In union organizing drives and on picket lines...I've seen...racism, sexism break down. I mean not immediately, not in the first day or two, but over a period of time. Folks start to see that the person who's working with them side by side or standing with them in the picket line has a hell of a lot more in common with them then they do with the boss who's making racist jokes and sexist jokes.

The limits of telling a better story

I13

People on the left have this conceit that if only we explained things better to people then the scales would be lifted from their eyes and they would all realize that [the source of their problems is] really capitalism after all. That's not necessarily true….the [first] problem with [this focus on] framing is that it's simplistic….and the world isn't simple. So we rankle at the idea of simplifying things for good reasons. The second reason is that it's not an equal fight, it's not like we're both starting out from the same situation on the right and the left….they're in an open competition and….of course the right has power behind it.

State violence and movement strategy

I30

I think if you've got enough people you can take a stand in any way to prevent stuff. But let's face it, the state has all the firepower, all the guns, and all it takes is an excuse and they'll use it….So when [the state] move[s] in they have every right in their mind to come in and surround and corner people...but if you defend yourself, if you resist that then you're the aggressor.